Introduction

This knowledge path directs readers to a selection of current, high-quality resources that present evidence-based nutrition guidance, describe public health campaigns and other promotion programs, inform policy and legislation, and report on research aimed at identifying promising strategies for improving nutrition and eating behaviors within families, schools, and communities. Health professionals, program administrators, policymakers, and researchers can use this knowledge path to learn more about child and adolescent nutrition, to improve care, for program development, and to locate training resources and information to answer specific questions. Separate briefs list resources for families and schools. This knowledge path has been developed by the MCH Library at Georgetown University and will be updated periodically.

View Related MCH Library Resources for guides about food marketing, food safety, food security and nutrition-assistance programs, nutrition in child care, and more.

Resources for Professionals

Overview

See the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issue brief, Nutrition and the Health of Young People, rev. ed. (2012). This brief highlights the benefits of healthy eating for children and adolescents, the consequences of a poor diet, the eating behaviors of young people, and the relationship between nutrition and academic performance.

Websites

• Adolescent Nutrition. Resources for health professionals, educators, and students about adolescent nutrition and eating disorders. This online resource is presented by Jane Mitchell Rees, Ph.D., R.D., C.D., at the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine with support from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB).
  
  
• Association of State and Territorial Public Health Nutrition Directors (ASTPHND). News, meeting and professional-development information, and resources about public health nutrition that include
  
  2011 Nutrition Services in State MCH Programs Inventory. (2011). [Report].
  
  Improving the Nutritional Well-Being of Women, Children and Families. (2010). [Issue brief].
  
  Moving to the Future: Tools for Planning Nutrition and Physical Activity Programs.
  
  
• Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP). Dietary-guidance materials and reports linking scientific research to consumers' nutrition needs. Resources include
  
  Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Information and background materials about the federal government's evidence-based nutrition guidance to promote health, reduce the risk of chronic diseases, and reduce the prevalence of overweight and obesity through improved nutrition and physical activity.
  
  Also see the Nutrition Evidence Library (NEL).
  
  
• Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). Articles, reports, fact sheets, and model legislation to promote safer, more nutritious food. Focus areas are food labeling, menu labeling, marketing low-nutrition foods to children, school foods, salt, soft drinks, trans fats, and food safety.
  
  
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Nutrition. Data and statistics; policy and legislation; information about programs and campaigns, including state-based nutrition and physical activity programs; tools for planning, implementing, and evaluating nutrition-intervention programs; and professional development and nutrition-education resources. Recent resources and initiatives include
  
  Children's Food Environment State Indicator Report, 2011. (2012).
  
  Consumption of Added Sugar Among U.S. Children and Adolescents, 2005–2008. (2012). [Data brief].
  
  Growth Charts. Tools and background information for plotting the growth of infants, children, and adolescents through age 20. Also see the set of training modules for health professionals using the pediatric growth charts in clinical and public health settings.
  
  Healthier Food Retail: Beginning the Assessment Process in Your State or Community. (2011). [Guide].
  
  Healthy Communities Program. Resources and tools to help community advocates encourage people in their communities to make healthy choices at home, work, school, and other settings through sustainable changes that address the major health risk factors: tobacco use, physical inactivity, and unhealthy eating. Nutrition topics include increasing access to locally grown fruits and vegetables and reducing sugar-sweetened beverage consumption.
  
  Second Nutrition Report on Biochemical Indicators of Diet and Nutrition in the U.S. Population. (2012).
  
  Social Marketing for Nutrition and Physical Activity. This online course provides training for public health professionals about how to use social marketing to plan nutrition, physical activity, and obesity-prevention programs. Also view case studies of state organizations that have gone through the social marketing planning process.
  
  State Initiatives Supporting Healthier Food Retail: An Overview of the National Landscape. (2012). [Report].
  
  Also see CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH), National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, Pediatric Nutrition Surveillance System, Chronic Disease State Policy Tracking System, and the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS).
  
  
• Children's Nutrition Research Center (CNRC). Research and training information, articles, interactive nutrition calculators, an electronic newsletter, and nutrition-education materials about the role of maternal, infant, child, and adolescent nutrition in optimal health, development, and growth. CNRC is one of six federally funded human nutrition research centers.
  
  
• Economic Research Service (ERS). Economic information, research, and publications on topics that include food safety and food and nutrition assistance. Also see the Food Desert Locator and Food Environment Atlas.
  
  
• Food and Nutrition Information Center (FNIC). Databases and resource lists with links to reports, policy statements, websites, listservs and blogs, and other information tools on a wide range of food and nutrition topics for health and education professionals and researchers. Topics include dietary guidance, lifecycle nutrition, diet and disease, food composition, weight and obesity, food safety, food labeling, dietary supplements, and nutrition-assistance programs. Resources include
  
  Interactive DRI for Healthcare Professionals. Tool to calculate daily nutrient recommendations for dietary planning based on the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs).
  
  
• Healthy People 2020. National health-promotion and disease-prevention initiative of the Department of Health and Human Services. View the overview, objectives, and recommended interventions and resources for nutrition and weight status and food safety. Use the MAP-IT (Mobilize, Assess, Plan, Implement, Track) strategy to implement HP2020 locally and view your state's plan for making progress on the HP2020 objectives.
  
  
• Leadership, Education and Training (LET) Program in Maternal and Child Nutrition. Web-based curricula and training information about maternal and child health (MCH) nutrition for nutrition professionals and other health professionals who work with women, infants, children, and adolescents. Curricula topics include public health nutrition, childhood obesity, health disparities, and connecting with pregnant adolescents. LET is part of the School of Public Health at the University of Minnesota and is funded by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB).
  
  
• Maternal and Child Health Training Program: Nutrition Grantees Collaborative Website. Information about university-based MCH nutrition training programs and resources, webinars, and conferences.
  
  
• National Institutes of Health (NIH): Division of Nutrition Research Coordination (DNRC). Reports, proceedings, and tools for researchers. Presents nutrition-education materials produced by NIH and other federal agencies that have been reviewed for scientific accuracy and to ensure that the dietary guidance information is consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. DNRC coordinates nutrition research and research training initiatives at NIH. Resources include
  
  Automated Self-Administered 24-Hour Dietary Recall (ASA24). Dietary assessment tool for automated, self-administered 24-hour dietary recalls. ASA24 consists of a respondent website used to collect recall data in English or Spanish and a researcher website used to manage study logistics and obtain data analyses. ASA24 is available at no charge and can be used by researchers for epidemiologic, intervention, behavioral, or clinical research and by clinicians for diet assessment and nutrition counseling.
  
  Also see the Human Nutrition Research Information Management (HNRIM) System.
  
  
• PolicyLink: Improving Access to Healthy Food. Reports that highlight the problem of access to healthy food in underserved communities and innovative solutions and tools for community-driven advocacy to improve access. Recent reports include
  
  Healthy Food, Healthy Communities: Promising Strategies to Improve Access to Fresh, Healthy Food and Transform Communities. (2011). [Report].
  

Additional Electronic Publications

• American Indian Healthy Eating Project in partnership with seven American Indian tribes in North Carolina. 2011. Tools for Healthy Tribes. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. [Toolkit].
  
  
• Holt K, Wooldridge NH, Story M, Sofka D, eds. 2011. Bright Futures: Nutrition, 3rd ed. Elk Grove Village, IL: American Academy of Pediatrics. [Guidelines, Pocket guide]. Guidelines for nutrition screening, assessment, and supervision for each developmental period. Addresses nutrition issues and concerns, such as nutrition for children with special health care needs, food allergies, eating disorders, nutrition in sports, and vegetarian eating practices.
  
  
• Sims J, Mikkelsen L, Gibson P, Warming E. 2011. Claiming Health: Front-of-Package Labeling of Children's Food. Oakland, CA: Prevention Institute. [Report].
  
  
• Wartella EA, Lichtenstein AH, Yaktine A, Nathan R, eds. 2011. Front-of-Package Nutrition Rating Systems and Symbols: Promoting Healthier Choices. Washington, DC: National Academies Press. [Report, Brief].
  
  
• White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity. 2010. Solving the Problem of Childhood Obesity Within a Generation: Report to the President. Washington, DC: Executive Office of the President of the United States. [Report].
  
  
• Yang Y, Lucas B, Feucht S, eds. 2010. Nutrition Interventions for Children with Special Health Care Needs, 3rd ed. Olympia, WA: Washington State Department of Health. [Guide].
  

Databases

The databases listed below are excellent tools for identifying data, additional literature and research, and programs about child and adolescent nutrition.

Data

• Food Desert Locator. Map food deserts and view census tract-level statistics on population groups with low access to healthy food. Economic Research Service (ERS).
  
  
• Food Environment Atlas. County-level statistics on food choices, health and well-being, and community characteristics to stimulate research on the determinants of food choices and diet quality and to analyze a community's ability to access healthy food. Economic Research Service (ERS).
  
  
• National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference. Nutrient information on approximately 8,000 food items. NDL also offers reports about single nutrients and the nutritive value of foods; measurement-conversion tables; and food-composition publications. Agricultural Research Service (ARS).
  
  
• Also see the MCH Library resource brief, Maternal and Child Health Data and Statistics, and, in particular, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), the Pediatric Nutrition Surveillance System (PedNSS), and the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS).
  

Literature and Research Databases

• Human Nutrition Research Information Management (HNRIM) System. Database of nutrition research and training projects supported by the federal government. Search under Nutrition Code for Infant and Child Nutrition and Adolescent Nutrition. National Institutes of Health (NIH).
  
  
• Nutrition Evidence Library (NEL). Systematic reviews about food and nutrition research. Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP).
  
  
• Also see the MCH Library resource brief, Maternal and Child Health Literature and Research Databases and, in particular, the Food and Nutrition Information Center (FNIC) databases, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) Series, the National Agricultural Library (NAL) Catalog (AGRICOLA), and PubMed.
  

Programs Databases

• Chronic Disease State Policy Tracking System. Search for legislative and regulatory information on nutrition topics that include access to healthy foods, farm-direct foods, farming incentives, and school nutrition. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
  
  
• Also see the MCH Library resource brief, Maternal and Child Health Programs Databases, and, in particular, the Healthy Counties Database, the Prevention Research Centers (PRC) and the Shaping America's Youth (SAY) Program Registry.
  

News and Commentary

• Children's Nutrition Research Center (CNRC): Nutrition and Your Child. This quarterly electronic newsletter offers research-based information about the nutritional care and feeding of infants, children, and adolescents.
  
  
• Food and Nutrition Information Center: Listservs and Blogs. This annotated list links to electronic discussion groups and blogs about nutrition, cooking, food service, nutrition-assistance programs, and related issues.
  

Resources for Families

• See the MCH Library family resource brief Nutrition in Kids and Teens.
  

Resources for Schools

• See the MCH Library school resource brief Nutrition Education and School Meals.
  

Resources for Child Care and Early Education Programs

• See the MCH Library resource brief Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity in Child Care and Early Education Programs.
  

Related MCH Library Resources

• Breastfeeding resource brief
• Eating Disorders organizations list
• Food Marketing to Children and Adolescents resource brief
• Food Safety resource brief
• Food Security and Nutrition Assistance Programs resource brief
• Nutrition During Preconception and Pregnancy resource brief
• Overweight and Obesity in Children and Adolescents knowledge path, family resource brief, school resource brief
  

Nutrition in Children and Adolescents: Knowledge Path, 6th ed. (September 2012).
Author: Susan Brune Lorenzo, M.L.S., MCH Library.
Reviewers: Arissa K. Anderson, M.P.H. and R.D. candidate, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; Stephanie Loup, M.P.H. and R.D. candidate, University of Minnesota; Shree Mohanty, M.A., M.S., R.D., L.D., Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Region V; Olivia Pickett, M.A., M.L.S., MCH Library; Bridget L. Wardley, M.S., R.D., C.S.P., New York University Steinhardt.
Editor: Ruth Barzel, M.A., MCH Library.